Cisco Umbrella vs Cloudflare One: Which Competitor Wins, and What Both Miss
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Cisco Umbrella and Cloudflare One both filter web traffic from the cloud, but they start from different places. Umbrella began as DNS-layer security and added a cloud proxy (SIG) on top. Cloudflare One layers a secure web gateway, ZTNA, and CASB on Cloudflare's global edge network. Cloudflare One is the broader platform today, and Umbrella is reaching end of life, so for most teams this is a question of what to move to.
What is the core difference?
| Cisco Umbrella | Cloudflare One | |
|---|---|---|
| Origin | DNS filtering (OpenDNS) | CDN and edge network |
| Web filtering | DNS in the DNS packages, cloud proxy in SIG | DNS filtering and HTTP inspection in Cloudflare Gateway |
| Endpoint client | Cisco Secure Client | Cloudflare One Client (formerly WARP) |
| HTTPS inspection | SIG only, in Cisco data centers | Yes, on Cloudflare's edge |
| Private app access | Not in Umbrella, moves to Secure Access | Included (ZTNA) |
| Product status | End of sale January 31, 2027, end of support January 31, 2029 | Actively developed |
| Analyst view | Cisco placed as a Challenger in Gartner's 2026 SASE Platforms Magic Quadrant | The only Visionary in the same report |
Where does Cisco Umbrella still make sense?
- Committed Cisco shops. Native ties to Duo, Meraki, and Cisco SD-WAN, plus Talos threat intelligence.
- DNS-only needs. If all you need is domain blocking across every device on a network, including guest Wi-Fi and IoT, the DNS layer does that with almost no deployment work.
The catch is the calendar. Cisco's bulletin EOL15975 ends new orders on January 31, 2027, and renewals on January 31, 2028. Staying with Cisco means moving to Cisco Secure Access anyway.
Where does Cloudflare One win?
- Network footprint. Cloudflare's edge is large, so many users sit close to a point of presence.
- One platform. SWG, ZTNA, and CASB in a single product, which Umbrella never offered.
- Bundle value. Attractive for teams already running Cloudflare for their sites and apps.
More on the client in our Cloudflare WARP explainer, and on cost in Cloudflare Zero Trust pricing.
What do both miss?
Both are cloud inspection models. That shared design has shared costs.
- A detour on every request. Traffic goes to the vendor's edge before the destination. Cloud proxies typically add 40 to 80 ms near a point of presence and 150 to 400 ms far from one.
- Decryption off the device. HTTPS is opened on infrastructure you don't own.
- Shared fate. When the vendor's network has an incident, it becomes your incident. Cloudflare had a network-wide outage on November 18, 2025. In 2026, Cisco's status page logged a Copilot category definition that blocked legitimate Microsoft 365 hostnames for about six hours on July 25.
The third option: inspect on the device
dope.security takes the proxy out of the cloud and puts it on the endpoint.
| Cisco Umbrella | Cloudflare One | dope.security | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Where HTTPS is decrypted | Cisco data center (SIG) | Cloudflare edge | On the device |
| Traffic detour | Yes with SIG | Yes | None |
| If the vendor cloud is unreachable | Depends on fail-open settings | Depends on client settings | Fallback mode enforces cached policy |
| Corporate vs personal account control | Limited at DNS | Yes | Yes, Cloud Application Control |
| DLP | SIG only | Yes | Dopamine DLP, LLM-powered, no rules to write |
| Private app access | No | Yes | Not built in today |
| Unmanaged and IoT devices | Yes, at the resolver | With network on-ramps | No, managed Mac and Windows only |
What that buys you:
- Speed. No stopover, up to 4x the performance of legacy proxy SWGs.
- Privacy. SSL inspection runs locally, so data never leaves the device.
- AI governance. AI Analytics shows every AI app in use, per user, with a personal versus enterprise account breakdown. Cloud Application Control allows your ChatGPT Enterprise workspace ID or Claude organization ID and blocks personal accounts, including in the Claude desktop app. Dopamine DLP reads uploads and prompts and blocks the sensitive ones.
- Answers without a query language. Ask the Dopamine agent "is anyone using DeepSeek?" and get the answer in seconds, then block the app from the same screen.
- Beyond the gateway. CASB Neural finds externally shared Drive and OneDrive files. SSPM lists every third-party app authorized on your Microsoft 365 or Google tenant with a risk rating.
- Fast policy. Changes push to endpoints in seconds.
Be honest about the gaps. If you need ZTNA in the same product, Cloudflare One has it and dope.security doesn't. If you need to filter devices you can't install an agent on, keep a DNS layer for those.
Which should you pick?
- Pick Cloudflare One if you already run on Cloudflare and want SWG and ZTNA in one bundle.
- Pick Cisco Secure Access if you're standardized on Cisco and want the least vendor change.
- Pick dope.security if your pain is latency, HTTPS visibility, or AI data leaks, and your fleet is managed Mac and Windows.
Frequently asked questions
Is Cloudflare a competitor to Cisco Umbrella?
Yes. Cloudflare Gateway, part of Cloudflare One, competes with both Umbrella's DNS filtering and its SIG proxy.
Is Cloudflare Gateway better than Cisco Umbrella?
It's a broader platform with HTTP inspection and ZTNA built in, and it isn't facing end of life. Umbrella is simpler for DNS-only filtering in Cisco environments.
Does Cloudflare Gateway do DNS filtering like Umbrella?
Yes. Gateway offers DNS filtering and adds HTTP inspection on top through the Cloudflare One Client.
Is Cisco Umbrella being discontinued?
Cisco has announced end of sale and end of life for Umbrella SIG and DNS. The last day to renew is January 31, 2028, and support ends January 31, 2029.
What is an alternative to both Cisco Umbrella and Cloudflare One?
dope.security, which inspects traffic on the device instead of in a vendor's cloud.
Fly direct instead
Start a free trial or see the full list of Cisco Umbrella alternatives.
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